Win 7 Stopped Loading Programs

I came home yesterday and my Windows 7 installation had stopped loading programs. I was able to boot into the OS and run Explorer, but nothing else would run, even from the Program Files folders. I'd click on program icons and the hourglass would appear, then disappear after a few seconds, and nothing would happen. Also I could get to a certain point in the Control Panel, but when I tried to initiate a System Image Backup for example I couldn't do that either.

I tried repairing and then restoring the OS and now I just get a black screen after I log in to Windows. After trying to restore the OS, I got a message saying that the restore function was unable to restore the drive and the OS files remained unchanged.

I think it might be the drive so I'm going to buy a new drive (OS drive recommendations most welcome!). I'm curious as to what the problem is though. I booted into a Windows XP installation in a different drive, and it looks like I can browse the drive Windows 7's installed in fine, but somehow something happened to the OS installation.

If you have any ideas as to what the problem is and how to fix it, let me know what your thoughts are, thanks!

Thanks for that. I'd definitely like to try the file type associations restore. I did try safe mode I just got a black screen. I haven't tried safe mode with networking yet, and I'll try that, but I'm guessing the same problem will come up.

It could be the drive at this point although it appears I can still browse the drive fine from a separate XP installation. That drive I got in 2006 I think and I pulled it out of an enclosure that failed.

Any suggestions for fixing this black screen after logging in issue?

Thanks, but don't you have to be able to log in to Windows to do that? After I input my password the screen goes black, except for maybe the mouse pointer.